


Red Flags

by dyingpoet



Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Minor Violence, Modern Era, this is p heavy yall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-24
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-12-07 00:15:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18227333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dyingpoet/pseuds/dyingpoet
Summary: Race has been acting strange for a while, and Jack is just starting to figure out why





	Red Flags

**Author's Note:**

> done based on a prompt i got from an anon on tumblr!! (this lowkey pained me to write bc of the Rage I Felt toward some characters but it's FINE)

Jack knew Race, like really  _ knew  _ him, better than most anybody if he had to guess. They’d grown up in the same house with Crutchie, and about ten years had passed since they’d first gotten placed there together. And so, it was easy to tell when things started to change with his little brother. 

It was small things at first, Race started saying no to going out more than usual, and was a bit quieter whenever he did go out. Jack figured it was just college stressing him out, he was on the track to graduate a year early and then go straight to graduate school, so he was busy a lot.

On top of that, he’d started seeing someone, his first boyfriend since high school actually, and relationships took up a lot of your time, and Jack knew that from dating Davey. 

But, then things started to take a turn for the worse, and quickly at that. Race had barely been speaking to Jack or any of his friends, and from what he heard he dragged himself to class and left without speaking to anyone. After about a week of that, and after Crutchie had called Jack in tears because Race snapped at him over the phone, Jack stepped in. 

“Why’d you call off work yesterday?” 

At Jack’s question Race glanced up from his coffee, which he’d been studying since he and Jack sat down. He looked exhausted. “Didn’t feel too well.”

His tone was dulled, and usually Jack had to cut him off to take a breath whenever he spoke, so the clipped answer threw him a little. “You sure? You’ve been a little off lately, I guess-”

“Is that why you asked me to come out?” Race snapped, the sudden burst of anger in his voice startling Jack. “So you could interrogate me about  _ nothing _ ?”

Jack frowned and held his ground; normally he would have switched the subject but this felt wrong. “Woah, what’s your problem? I just asked a question.”

Race snorted and leaned back in his chair. “I don’t have a problem, Jack.”

“Okay well, I’m just saying if  _ something’s _ wrong, you can always talk to me or Crutchie or somebody.”

And then in another uncharacteristic move, Race stood up and grabbed his coat, hands gripping it way too tight as he shrugged it on. “Good to know, I’ll see ya, Jack.”

With that he walked off, and Jack was left staring after him, much more concerned than he’d been to begin with. Without a thought, he picked up his phone and dialed the only person who could be remotely objective and calm with this.

_ “Hello?” _

“Davey? Yeah, I gotta ask you about Race.”

* * *

 

Half an hour later, it should have been ten minutes but the subway was all backed up because some train needed to be fixed because of water on the tracks or  _ whatever _ , Jack walked into Davey and his apartment, dripping rainwater onto the carpet.

“Jack? That you?”

“Yeah,” Jack called back to Davey, stripping off his jacket and hanging it up, raking a hand through his hair and shaking it to try and get some of the water out. “Can you grab me a hoodie?”

There was the sound of drawers being pulled open and Davey walked out a few seconds later and tossed Jack an old hoodie, rushing to the stove where he’d started boiling water for tea, Jack guessed, already. He was sort of the dream as far as boyfriends went, and Jack felt himself smiling despite the situation. 

Stripping out of his soaked shirt, Jack pulled on the hoodie and walked to their kitchen table, sitting down as Davey poured both of them mugs of water and dug through the cabinet for the tea.

“What kind do you want?”

Jack drummed his fingers on the table, craning his head to look at the cabinet. “Lavender?”

Davey hummed, grabbing the bag and bringing it over to Jack with his cup before finally sitting down himself. 

“Okay, so I’ve been thinking about what you said about Race,” he started, steeping his own tea while Jack did the same. “And if he was acting out as much as you said, I don’t think it’s because of school. I mean, we’ve  _ seen  _ him get stressed out, he never acts like that.”

Jack nodded and sipped his tea, the warmth felt amazing. “Yeah that’s what I thought, too. What else do you think it could be, though?”

Davey fell silent then, looking down into his mug of tea just like Race had earlier, looking back at Jack a second later and biting his lip. “I mean, I have an idea, but I might be wrong.”

“What is it?”

“Well I mean, he first started acting a little bit off a few months ago, right? You said something about it after his birthday?”

Jack nodded and Davey continued.

“He did start dating his roommate right after that, right? Oscar?” Davey pressed, seeing the realization light up in Jack’s eyes and putting up a hand to try and reel him back. It didn’t work.

“Oh shit, you don’t think it could be because of him?” Jack asked, putting a hand over his mouth when Davey nodded slowly. “ _ Fuck _ , I mean it’s sorta weird, those two being together. Race barely ever brings him around, like I’ve probably seen them together twice, and Race never talks about him.”

Nodding again, Davey played with the edge of his phone case. “Yeah, and I asked Albert about it, because he lives in the same building as them with Elmer and Specs, just like a floor down.”

“And?”

“And I guess they hear them fighting a lot,” Davey admitted, “and like, they didn’t question it because sometimes Race just gets loud and it sounds like he’s yelling but he’s not  _ really  _ yelling, y’know?”

Jack clawed his hands, trying to think of  _ anything  _ he might have heard or seen about Race’s relationship in the last three months that was strange while he nodded

“And they said they hear stuff breaking sometimes, like plates and stuff.”

At that Jack stood up, leaning farther over the table. “ _ What? _ They said that?”

Davey nodded and stood up quickly to follow Jack, who’d already gotten up and started for the door. He just remembered too much of what Davey had just said. From before Medda and living with Race and Crutchie, and he could  _ hear  _ it. Things breaking, yelling all the time, being scared  _ all the time _ . He couldn’t let Race go through that, more than he already had.

“Jack, wait a second,” Davey said as he slid between Jack and the door while he put on his coat. “You can’t just go in there-”

“I sure as hell can-”

“I  _ mean _ ,” Davey continued, a placating tone in his voice, “you can’t just go alone. If something’s actually violent you don’t wanna be the only one there.”

That made sense, and Jack pulled his phone at the same time Davey did. “I’ll call Albert and them.”

“I’ll call Crutchie.”

* * *

 

They had all met up in Albert’s apartment, it being in the same building and all. It was Jack, Davey, Albert, Crutchie and Elmer. Specs had been taking a midterm and he didn’t have his phone on him at all, or else he would’ve been there. But the five of them would be enough. 

“What are we doing, exactly?” Elmer asked from his seat on the kitchen table. Him and Albert had felt horrible at not recognizing what was going on sooner, and the guilt had quickly been replaced with anger, and they were both looking at Jack expectantly.

“Well,” Jack said, pacing back and forth, throwing glances at their door every couple steps, “we just go over I guess, I brought my spare key, and if stuff is as bad as we think it is, we just get Race out.”

“And beat the shit outta Oscar, right?”

Jack nodded and Davey shook his head at the same time, both of them looking at each other with frowns.

“Davey, he’s been  _ hurting  _ Race,” Jack said tightly. “Of course we’re gonna go after him.”

“I get that, but I don’t want either of you to get arrested or hurt or anything, even if he is abusive you can still get assault charges,” Davey argued, more pleaded than argued actually, and he then sighed deeply when Albert snorted and started for the door.

“Yeah, whatever Davey, let’s just go.”

He led the charge out, Davey and Elmer following behind him, leaving Jack and Crutchie to trail behind.

Out in the hall, Crutchie bumped Jack’s shoulder and he looked at him with a glassy look in his eyes; his life before Medda hadn’t been a dream either. “What if it’s real bad, Jack?”

“Then we’ll get him out,” Jack said and threw an arm around his younger brother, sounding more confident than he felt, “and it won’t happen anymore.”

Crutchie sniffled and nodded, and the two of them followed the rest of the group up the flight of stairs between the two apartments. Race’s was up one floor and over one from Albert and the guys’, so it was honestly lucky they had heard anything at all. 

When they got to the door, Jack pulled away from Crutchie and walked up, knocking on the door first before trying his key. They knew somebody was home from the sound of the T.V on, but after a few seconds of nothing Jack pulled out his key and put it in the lock, pushing into the apartment and feeling the group pressing close behind him.

He opened his mouth to call something when muffled voices came from the back room. Turning to look at the rest of the guys, he nodded and started walking. 

“Hello? Race? Oscar?”

The voices cut out quickly, and the door to what Jack guessed was their bedroom swung open and Oscar stepped out, blocking the doorway from view. “Why are you guys here?”

His voice was clipped, and Jack felt Albert tense behind him and his own fists ball; honestly, they guy seemed sketchy at first, but he didn’t see him enough to get a solid read. Now he could, though.

“We wanted to see Race,” Davey said and stepped up to get shoulder to shoulder with Jack. “Is he here?”

Oscar looked behind him, and looked like he was about to wave them off when Jack snapped, walking forward and shouldering roughly passed him into the bedroom. He stopped dead after that.

“Hey, why don’t you just get out.”

Oscar’s voice was actually sounding farther away than it actually was, because Race was sitting cross-legged on the bed with his head in his hands, a broken glass was shattered on the floor in front of the bed and Jack saw specks of blood on Race’s fingers where he was gripping his hair. 

Just as he looked up Jack heard a soft gasp from behind, most likely from Crutchie, and the younger boy stepped forward into the room just as Jack stepped back. 

When he turned around Oscar had gone pale, and Davey and Elmer had moved past him to join Crutchie and Race in the room, so it was just him, Jack, and now Albert, who had already started forward. 

“Hey-”

Jack beat Albert to the punch, lunging at Oscar and slamming him against the wall nearest, blood pounding in his ears and hands shaking viciously because he remembered this  _ exact scene _ , played out a long time ago and with different people, but it was there.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he spit out, arm pressing hard into Oscar’s chest as the shorter guy squirmed, trying to get an arm free. “You think you can come after my fucking  _ brother _ ?”

“You don’t know shit about what’s going on,” he said, pushing back against Jack and getting an easier time out of it than he should have on account of the setting. “He doesn’t need you bursting in here to  _ save  _ him-”

He was cut off as he got an arm free, taking a quick swing at Jack, who in his dazed state barely dodged. But Albert barrelled forward as soon as Jack gave him an opening, hitting Oscar square in the jaw and sending him sprawling and gripping his face as he fell. Albert nearly went down after him, but Jack saw his fists ball before he settled for just standing above him, cursing viciously. Davey’s advice had done some good. 

Jack watched him for a second, hands clawing into themselves and he only turned away once he was really sure Albert wasn’t going after him anymore, and because he couldn’t  _ breathe  _ all the sudden. 

His head was spinning and for some reason that fear was still coming up in his chest like he was eight and defenseless again and he stumbled toward Race’s room, walking into the room and watching Race, collapsed in Crutchie’s arms,  _ sobbing _ . 

His little brother, sobbing.

Without hearing what Davey said when he put a hand on his shoulder, trying to do something that Jack didn’t care about right then, he walked over, stepping over the broken glass, and sat down on the bed next to his brothers. 

When the bed dipped Race and Crutchie looked up, Crutchie was crying too, and Race moved to pull Jack closer to him. There was blood from a cut on his hairline, and it had gotten all over his hands and clothes. 

“Jack, I’m sorry,” he choked out, gripping Jack’s shirt hard and hiccuping into his chest. “I-I got mad earlier and I don’t know why, I’m sorry-”

Shaking his head, Jack hugged Race tighter and rubbed lightly at his back, feeling himself start to ground a little bit with the contact. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“But-”

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Jack repeated, pulling back to hold Race at arm’s length and looking him in the eyes; his own tear-filled now. “None of this is your fault, it’s that asshole’s.”

He nodded toward the door and Race nodded jerkily, still sniffling, and Jack pulled him and Crutchie in again, wrapping his arms around the two of them and feeling the fear fade away. 

“I’m calling the cops,” Elmer said from somewhere behind them, and neither of them moved but Jack felt Race sigh a little bit, from relief or something else he didn’t know. At least he was okay. Or really, Race was  _ going  _ to be okay, they would make sure of that. 

**Author's Note:**

> ahhh that was rough huh??? quite heavy maybe??? im stressed out writing this BUT i hope yall enjoyed it??? Race is okay it's gonna be okay!!!
> 
> a n y w a y leave kudos/comments if you can yall!!!!


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